


Summer Nights

by yestofandoms



Series: Delivery Boy [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Agoraphobe! Keith, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, An AU no one asked for, Fluff, M/M, Modern AU, One Shot, Short & Sweet, Short One Shot, UPS Driver!Lance, the lions are various animals, there's lots of informericals mentioned, they all exist, this is my first
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-03
Updated: 2017-07-03
Packaged: 2018-11-22 22:13:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11389470
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yestofandoms/pseuds/yestofandoms
Summary: Lance is a UPS Driver who delivers to a Mr. Keith Kogane, who, for reasons unknown to Lance can't step foot outside of his house.





	Summer Nights

**Author's Note:**

> i commissioned my friend to draw Lance :D you can find them at kanisenpai.tumblr.com

[](https://www.flickr.com/photos/157681832@N05/42626344122/in/dateposted-public/)

Driving down a lane on a bright summer morning in an affluent residential area belting the _Grease_ soundtrack tapping his hands rhythmically on his steering wheel you could find Lance McClain. At this point he was pretty sure all the homeowners in the Galra Community knew when Lance was coming by to drop off packages.

Lance started his job as a postal service worker as a summer job two years ago, he recently took it up as a part-time job to pay off unexpected finances from his college. Lance couldn’t believe he overslept for his Calculus II final and at first he grieved knowing he’d have to retake the class and pay the extra fees, but he found a silver lining.

That silver lining came in the form of oddball infomercials.

Lance made a stop in front of one of the more modest homes among the Galra Complexes. The house reminded Lance of a barn, but more modern and contemporary. It had solar panels dressing the top of the roof which was the only one in the neighborhood. When Lance got to know the person living underneath the roof he understood why. Lance laughed when he heard the reason he had them installed. ‘Just in case the zombie apocalypse strikes, I need to be ready.’ Lance chuckled with the memory, he remembered how earnest the young man’s response was.  That was their first _real_ conversation which ignited a million more and Lance had never been happier that solar panels existed.

Lance never stepped a foot inside the door, but he could tell that there was at least two floors, perhaps a basement. A basement he assumed his client would spend most of his time thinking about possible conspiracies with a corkboard and red string of where Nessie could be hiding. Lance often daydreamed about what his last delivery gets up too in his spare time.

Lance grinned as he made his last delivery of the day. He turned off his truck as he went into the back of his vehicle to grab the last remaining box. Lance plucked the small rectangular brown cardboard box that was a bit heavier than expected.  Lance swelled in excitement to figure out what it would be.

Lance hummed _Summer Nights_ to himself  as he walked on the bricked path. Lance loved the smell of the fresh grass as he danced closer to the door. He wondered how or more so who his client paid to trim his lawn. Lance knew he couldn’t have done it despite having a love of nature.

Lance brought back the rose gold ring that the lion door knocker held in it’s mouth and swung it back two times waiting three seconds to tap it against the red door to tap it once last time. A code his client told him so that he’d know whether it was him at the door.

 

Lance remembered the first time he arrived to the house, he was new to the job and told he needed to get a signature, but no one was coming to the door. Lance was too self-conscious to leave the package by itself, he didn’t want to get fired if it got stolen so he stayed outside for twenty minutes. Lance knew in college if a professor didn’t show up after fifteen minutes you could walk away, but Lance really wanted extra money that summer. (There was a girl he wanted to go to an end of the summer concert with and impress her with tickets. He ended up getting two tickets, but she ended up taking them both for her and her boyfriend.) But Lance, could’ve sworn he saw someone in the window by the white curtains. When Lance turned his head to face the movement he saw their eyes widen as they rushed away. They almost looked like a ghost. Lance couldn’t tell how old they were because they ran off too quickly and thought it was probably a little kid whose parents weren’t home.

Lance knocked the door lightly, hoping that they were still near the entrance, and he spoke calmly.

“I’m not sure if you can hear me, but, uh, I have a package for a-” Lance pulled the brown box from his side as he used his left arm to hold it down and read the name on the white label. Lance squinted at the words smudged in black ink. “A Mr. Keith Ko-Kogain?” Lance wasn’t sure how to say the last name. “Sorry, if I just butchered that, but I just need a signature so I can go.” There was no sound to prove anyone was around. Lance let out a small sigh.

“I don’t know if you’re still there, but I just started this job and I have no idea what I’m doing. I just don’t want to lose this, I’m a broke college student. They said I had one job, to make people sign off their package,” Lance groaned to himself assuming there was no one there. “And now I am talking to a lion on a door.” Lance let out a disappointed breath as he began to walk away with the package. It wasn’t until he was halfway down the walkway when he heard the door creak open. Lance spun around on his heels to see the door slightly open. There was a muffled voice behind the door.

“It’s Kogane.” The voice muttered, Lance barely making out what they were saying. Lance rushed toward the door ecstatic to see a person was there, but it frightened them so they slammed the door. Lance jerked back at the sound. They screamed frantically through the door. “Sorry!” Lance registered that was not the voice of a little kid like he originally assumed.

“I-I didn’t mean to do that, slam the door, I mean. I mean, I did mean to slam it, but I didn’t mean it to be mean,” Kogane stammered.  “You know what I mean.” Kogane groaned through the other side of the door, somehow Lance had more pity for the boy on the other side than himself. His voice sounded frazzled and all over the place. Lance heard him take a deep breath on the other side as he collected himself. “Can you just,” A pause. “Can you just leave it out there, preferably to the left of the door as close to the door as possible without getting in front of the door?” Lance’s eyes made it’s way down to left side of the door and was near the crack of the door so that if he opened the door he could stick his hand out and grab the package quickly.

“Yeah, I can do that,” Lance wanted to make this transaction as easy as possible for the two of them, “but I still need to get this signed for.” Lance saw this on tv. He was channel surfing when he was procrastinating from his homework and came across a show called _Shameless_ and there was a woman terrified of stepping outside of her house because of dirt.

Admittedly, Lance thought they were just over exaggerating for comedic purposes on the show, but now being around the phobia in person he has a different outlook on her character. He wanted to make this as simple for Kogane as possible, he didn’t want to upset his condition. “Would signing it through the mail slot work for you? I think it could fit through your door slot it’s the size of a phone, looks like a phone, and all you got to do it sign your signature with the stylus. Is that okay?” It was in his back pocket.

“How do I know it’s not like a, I don’t know, like a bomb?” The person shot back quickly.

“Uh,” Lance stammered from the shock of the question. “It’s not?” Lance rubbed the back of his neck with his freehand.

“That’s not very convincing.” Kogane huffed. Lance only shrugged humming the words I-don’t-know. He didn’t know what to tell him. “What’s your name?”

“What?” Lance asked.

“What’s your name? You know my name, I should at least know yours.”

“Oh!” Lance saw this as Kogane gaining a basic sense of trust with him, so he told him his name optimistically. “I am Lance McClain.”

“McClain?” Kogane questioned more to himself than to Lance. “I know that name. Did you go to the Garrison?”

“Yeah!” Lance perked up hearing the name of his high school alma mater. “Wait,” Lance’s voice raised slightly as he took a step back from the door. “How do you know that?” The door began opening slowly and the inside had all the lights off on the inside. Lance was thinking he preferred his life over his job and was about to make a dash for his truck until he saw the face of the owner of the box.

“Because I went to the Garrison.” The red door was cracked open slightly, it showed the left side of Keith’s face.

“I recognize that mullet.” Lance wagged his finger around as the name Keith Kogane raced through his mind. Lance stared at the ground as memories of his jealousy flooded through him. Lance’s voice came off as hostile. “You were the guy who had highest marks each quarter. I was always behind you, until you left, what,” Lance noticed how Keith’s jaw tightened and Lance thought of how know he was unable to step out of his house. Lance’s brashness faded as he gently asked a question that he’d always wondered throughout his high school career. “What happened?”

“Stuff.” Keith crossed his arms. “Can I sign for the thing now?” Keith’s eyes kept skittering behind Lance’s back.

“Right,” Lance sucked his teeth regretting he asked. He pulled the tracker out from his khaki shorts and handed it to Keith. “Here.” Lance saw that Keith was struggling inching his hand outside of his house so Lance inched closer so his hand was inside Keith’s house.

“Thank you,” Keith fondly announced as he held a slight smile towards him. Lance gulped as he pursed his lips, raising his eyebrow, and nodding his head before he spoke. “Mhmm, yeah, no problem.” Lance never heard Keith sound that grateful before and it stunned him. The smile even if it was barely there made Lance glad he got to meet Keith again. Keith grabbed the stylus and phone brushing fingertips with Lance quickly. Keith was colder than Lance would’ve guessed he’d be. Keith quickly drew his signature.

“I wrote my name,” Keith held the phone in his hands keeping his hand under his doorway all though the phone was outside. Lance grabbed it and clicked a few buttons saying the box reached it’s destination. “Can I get my package now, please?” Keith asked.

“Here you are.” Lance placed the box in Keith’s palms. Keith eyes lit up as soon as it was in his house. His cheeks became more plump underneath his eyes when he smiled wide. Keith bounced up and down from joy. Lance had to know what was making him so happy. “What’s in it?” Lance asked with a smile.

“Thanks.”  Keith forgotten Lance was there as he was thinking of all the fun he was going to have with his UFO detector. He didn’t exactly hear what Lance had said before he closed the door and didn't intend to once again slam the door in his face, but these things happen.

 

Of course, Lance didn’t know that at the time, he only found out next summer when he saw him again when they were past small talk, once Lance asked about the solar panels, from there their conversation snowballed. They created the code for knocking on Keith’s door because Keith explained to Lance that he got nervous around new people and new situations.

Keith never went into much detail about it with Lance, but Keith told Lance that he developed severe Agoraphobia -which Lance looked up to confirm it was what the girl from _Shameless_ had- so he couldn’t step out of the house. Keith also had Thantophobia which Lance did not know. Keith told him it was a fear of death and his phobias went hand in hand together. Keith told him, he couldn’t step outside because you can die outside. Lance argued, you can die inside which Keith combatted with "at least, if I die I’m in my pajamas." Lance laughed at the memory as the door swung open.

“Is there a Mr. Keith Kogane in this fine establishment?” Lance inquired melodramatically as he moved the box back and forth in front of his eyes. Lance handed him the stylus as Keith smirked. While Keith focused on writing his name Lance was checking out Keith. He was wearing the pajamas pants Lance mentioned. Lance told Keith about the group of friends he stuck with from the Garrison.  He told Keith that Pidge is an art major and she had a RedBubble account and made a cute little stickers of Mothman. She figure out a way to translate that design onto clothes and had her image repeated all over the fabric. Keith chose red to go behind the mini-Mothmans. Keith paired this up with a black short-sleeved t-shirt.

“Only if there is a Mr. Lance McClain willing to deliver to me.” Keith said kindly as Lance traded him the tracker with his package. Once Keith signed it he handed the device back to Lance. 

“What’d you buy this time?” Lance saw that Keith put his box on the ground behind him as he clicked buttons on his UPS tracking device. Lance loved seeing when Keith did that, because that meant they were going to talk to each other for a while. Lance loved their talks because he was pretty sure Keith didn’t have meaningful chats with anyone else.

Working as a UPS driver part-time now meant Lance could talk to Keith on a regular basis and not just during the summer and then pausing for months which led to the awkwardness of getting to know each other again. The only silver-lining for Lance to make extra money to pay off a class he could have passed was Keith and these conversations.

“I got a Star Shower.” Keith buzzed with energy.  “Can you guess what it does?”

“Well, seeing how it has the word shower in it and star and thinking of how it was kinda heavy, I think I am going to guess,” Lance looked up to the sky as he tapped his chin. “Ooh! I got it,” Lance returned focus to Keith. “It’s like a disco ball in the shape of a star you can hang to your shower ceiling.”

“That sounds cool! Do you think they have that online?”

“I’m guessing that’s not what’s in your box than?” Lance laughed.

“No, but it’s close. You see,” Keith widened his door and leaned on it. It allowed Lance to see more clearly into his house. As Keith got more comfortable around Lance he noticed Keith swung his door open more, but never had it been completely spread. Lance saw Keith’s plasma screen, he was watching Mythbusters and the HD on the screen was so good he thought Adam Savage was walking through the TV. Lance knew Keith didn’t have a job and he constantly wondered what Keith did for a living because he was always buying random objects he didn’t need. Lance thought he might have some secret popular YouTube channel where he reviews his _As Seen on TV_ purchases and he just can’t find it.  Lance brought it up once before Keith said something Lance didn’t understand. “It was settled.” Lance was kind of scared to ask further questions on what Keith meant by that, but Lance had his theories. Keith could potentially be working as a leader for a crime syndicate all from his computer it would explain his fear of death and stepping outside. However, when Lance thought about the person that was Keith he couldn’t imagine him doing anything insane like that. Keith bought bread mitts the other day. That same person cannot be a mafia leader, Lance refused to believe that.

“When I bought the Star Shower I kind of thought the same thing you did, but instead of a disco ball it was a laser light show. However, once I clicked buy I did further research and found that it is actually for Christmas. It shines lasers on the outside of your house, I’m still going to use it when I go to the shower, but that’s not what it’s original purpose is.”

“Get festive!” Lance did his best Mariah Carey impression. Lance loved how Keith had a vast knowledge of internet memes where he could say that to him and he wouldn’t get a blank stare in response. Lance was about to ask Keith to tell him how his light show works, but Keith cut him off.

“Oh, that reminds me!” Keith was about to run away from his door up to his stairs, but then he stopped returning to Lance. “How long do you have?”

“I got time.” Lance replied smoothly. Lance wasn’t sure how long he had, his boss, Alfor liked for him to be on time when he finished making his last delivery so they could load up the truck for the night’s delivery.

“Good, I want to show you something. Come inside.”  Keith waved Lance to the inside of his house as he rushed up his beige carpet covered stairs which were to Keith’s right behind him. “Lock the door behind you!” Keith yelled out to him.  Lance couldn’t believe what he was hearing, he was allowed to enter Keith’s home, but he wasn’t objecting. He stepped inside his house and felt a blast of cold air as soon as he did. Lance shivered as he rubbed his arms. Lance understood why Keith felt cold to the touch when they first reunited. It’s freezing.

When Lance stood in his house he saw a lineup of shoes, but they were thrown all over the place without order. Lance painted Keith as a neat freak, he did some research on Agoraphobia and found that most people with the phobia are obsessed with cleanliness and compelled to clean, but it was clear that Keith didn’t have that compulsion .

“Do I have to take off my shoes?” Lance waited for an answer by the door on the polished pale grey wood floor before going to feel the fuzz of the carpet.

“If you want, yeah!” Keith shouted as Lance heard a random clash of noises. It caused Lance to ducked his head between his shoulders as he raised his arms slightly.

“Everything alright?” Lance called out while he was pulling his timberlands off putting it by the sneakers near the wall.  Then Lance grabbed Keith’s laser light box off from the floor with intentions of putting it down somewhere Keith could grab it with ease.

“Yeah, I’m just looking for something!” Lance stepped away Keith’s floor and he rubbed his socks colored with pink, lavender, and blue lines repeating in succession on the carpet. Lance shuffled his feet all the way to Keith’s living room to watch his tv show. There was a coffee table in the middle of the room, Lance put down Keith’s laser light. There was a yellow and blue lint roller Lance noticed, but Lance poked at it for a bit to realized it wasn’t an average lint roller. Lance racked his brain trying to remember what Keith bought and the name _Sticky Buddy_ came to his head. There was also a red and purple _Snackeez_ cup, Lance laughed to himself recognizing at least one infomercial.

Lance turned behind him, saw a couch, and he stepped closer to it. He placed his hand on the seat, it was a red microfiber couch. Lance rubbed his hand on it before he sat down. He liked watching the pattern changed with each movement he made. The shades of red changed depending on which way he swiped. When Lance sat down into the crevice of the seat watching Mythbusters he realized he was not alone. Lance faced the seat next to him when he heard a small _mrow_. There was a cat sitting on a pillow that had four corner pockets. Lance recognized it as the _GoGo Pillow_ Keith told him he bought a few weeks ago.

It was an orange striped tabby cat with white fur surrounding their mouth. The cat walked over to Lance and began smelling him as they place their paw on his lap. The cat locked eyes with Lance. Lance saw the cat had amber-colored eyes. Their eyes were huge, it reminded him of his own cat Blue. _Mrow_ . The cat bumped their head into Lance’s stomach signalling to Lance the universal cat sign of _pet me._ Lance happily obliged as he caressed Keith’s cat.

Lance’s senses were happy; the cat was soft like a cloud Lance drew his hand back. The feeling was different from his cat. Lance’s cat was a pearl-colored fluffy persian cat with big blue eyes. She’s friendly with everyone and Lance guessed so was Keith’s cat. Lance didn’t know Keith had a cat, and if he did, he would’ve guessed that Keith would’ve had a black cat.

As Keith’s orange cat stepped into Lance’s lap flopping down on her side getting comfortable in his lap while watching tv with him and purring Lance noticed a shadowy figure appear from behind the tv. Lance could only make out their green eyes because their fur hid any of their other features. The black cat hadn’t meowed at Lance, but nodded toward him showing respect. The black cat knelt on the corner of the black tv stand and resembled a loaf of bread as they blinked their eyes heading to sleep.

Lance was hoping more cats would appear out of nowhere because one cat is good, two cats is great, but if there were _three_ cats Lance would never leave. Lance loved all animals. In the Garrison he needed to get his community service hours and signed up Pidge and Hunk to volunteer at animal shelters with him which is where they got their animals. Pidge got a green lizard, Hunk got a brown three-legged pit bull terrier, back at the adoption agency they were given basic names so they wouldn’t care about them enough to adopt like Green, Yellow, and Blue. However, these three fall in love easily.

Lance could hear footsteps coming down the stairs a few paces behind him. He turned his head against the seat slightly so he didn’t disturb Keith’s orange cat. Lance gave him a huge grin when he saw him walking down. Keith’s hand were behind his back as he walked near the black coffee table in the middle room.  Keith kept his back away from Lance’s line of sight, but stared at both of his cats. “Ah, so I see you’ve found my familiars.” Keith joked. “Wow, I’m impressed and jealous. It took me months to get Red to like me. She rarely likes anyone.”

“Oh, you didn’t know?” Lance asked while he rubbed Red’s head. She nudged her head against the palm of Lance’s hand as she dropped her chin over his knee in complete bliss.

“Know what?” Keith tilted his neck to the side as he questioned Lance.

“That my side job involves being a cat whisperer.” At the same time Lance said that Red meowed in agreement. Lance pointed to her in his lap. “See, she agrees.” Keith chuckled. “What’s the other cat’s name?” Lance motioned with his eyes toward black.

“Guess.” Keith grinned.

“Seeing how this orange cat is name Red I am going to guess that black cat is grey.”

“Nope,” Keith shook his head. “My brother named her Black and I only named Red, Red because it was dark when I saw her and she looked red.”

“When did you grab her?” Lance stared fondly toward Red and her owner.

“Well, I didn't grab her, she kind of ran in. It was thundering outside a few years back and I heard this loud meowing while I was playing in my FunCave,” Lance questioned what a FunCave was, but didn’t interrupt Keith’s story. “I looked over to the doors and then I saw there was this soaked cat and I couldn't just leave her there, so I slid the doors open and she ran in. She meowed at me and made a mess everywhere, but eventually she let me wrap her in a blanket. The _ShamWow_ works wonders. Red was the angriest burrito, _purr_ ito, if you will, I’d ever seen.” Lance loved how Keith’s online shopping came in handy in the process of earning Red’s trust.

“That’s a cute story,” Lance beamed toward Keith who returned the favor. “But I have four follow-up questions and one of them is random.”

“I bet I have answers.”Keith replied while Red leaped from Lance’s lap and started getting chased by Black.  Lance turned his head behind the couch to watch them run up a set of stairs quickly before he returned to ask his questions to Keith. Lance stood up and stepped closer towards Keith keeping a comfortable distance between the two as he put his hands in his pockets.

“Question one: where’d your brother get Black,” Lance recognized that fuzzball just a bit by the way they hopped after Red. “Two: does everyone name their animal after colors? ‘Cause have a cat named Blue. Three: what’s a FunCave? And four: what are you hiding behind your back?” Lance didn’t forget Keith wanted to show him something and he was eager to find out what that was.

“Oh, fun, a speed round,” Keith buzzed through each questions. “One: The 1984 Animal shelter near Altea Ave. Two: No, just us cause we’re basic, but basic is good sometimes. Three: it’s my basement where I play with toys ranging from video games to legos,” Lance quickly imagined Keith building worlds with his legos blocks and found that much more adorable than obsessing over Slenderman.  “And as for four, you’ll have to close your eyes to find out.”

“Can do.” Lance put one of his hands over his eyes as he blinked hard so no light could go through. He was a sucker for surprises.

“Keep ‘em close.” Keith suggested as he grabbed one of Lance’s hands and placed what Lance assumed was a rubber band over it. Lance made sure his eyes were shut as he grinned. He didn’t realized he was getting a gift. Lance heard velcro in the background as he tried to rack his brain over what Keith could’ve gotten.

“Okay, open.” Keith sounded muffled and overly enthusiastic. When Lance opened his eyes he screamed and jump back into the seat. Lance saw what he could only describe as a cheesy villain from a murder movie in the 90s murder mask. It looked like Jason from Friday the 13th hockey mask, but there were no holes and it was flesh toned. Lance’s heart raced as he stared at Keith pulling off the mask bending over laughing.

“Keith!” Lance yelled exasperated over Kogane’s fits of laughter. “Why would you play me like that?!”

“Because,” Keith tossed the mask to Lance while giggling. “How else would I explain how,” Keith brought his hand from around his waist as he chuckled, “how I broke my mirror?” Keith’s laughter died down as he wiped a tear from the side of his eye. “Your expression was better than mine, you were all like,”  Keith burrowed his eyebrows as he widened his mouth in a grimace crinkling his nose. Lance found himself chuckling at the overly exaggerated face Keith made.

“Wait, how does this tie into you breaking your mirror?” Keith sat beside Lance bringing his knee to the back of the couch while his leg rested on the couch seat with his other hanging idly on the side of the seat. Keith took the mask from Lance’s lap. Showing him the inside of it, there were twenty LED light points in different sections of the face from the temples all the way to the chin.

“So, this helps tighten your face and appear younger, the light activates certain properties in your face,” Keith explained as he grabbed the box it connected to. He turned a lever as he did red numbers on the box came to life. The number fifteen “You’re only supposed to wear it for fifteen minutes, but I passed out and forgot it was on and when I woke up I walked over to mirror and thought I was under attack and basically I punched it and it shattered,” Keith picked at his fingerless gloves which Lance just noticed his fingers had colorful band aids wrapped around each of them. The first finger was sky blue, the second a soft orange, the third was pink, and the last was purple. “So, when you get a shipment of a mirror, that’s why.”

“Are you okay?” Lance asked staring at Keith’s hand.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m more concerned about the seven years of bad luck than a few scratches if I’m honest,” At the same moment Black walked back to the living room and jumped on the reclining chair near the opposite side of the tv station. Lance and Keith both watched as she sauntered to the chair. “Then again, I have a black cat and she’s a blessing, so I guess it can’t be too bad,” Keith shrugged before perking up.   “I think the _Rejuvenique_ mask works and I remember you were telling me you had a good skin care regime and thought you might want to give it a try. You also need toning gel for it, but I used all of it that came from the product because I ran out of,” Keith’s eyes skirted to the left as his voice raised a bit. “Uh, something else, ” Keith’s focus returned to Lance.  “ Anyway, I thought that you might like this more than me, so here you go.”

“You’re giving me this?” Lance raised the creepy mask that was giving a light show.

“Yeah, I kind of bought it because I was thinking of you,” Keith poked and prodded at his own cheeks lifting them up and down feeling its oiliness as if he hadn’t made Lance’s heart skip when he heard that Keith _thinks about him_. “After you told me about how much you care for your skin I thought about mine and how I just put soap on mine. I did some research and this product popped up as a necessity.”

“I am both touched and concerned,” Lance laughed as he put the mask over his face. “What did you put in your search engine where this came up as a necessity?”

“It was in my recommended searches!” Keith defended as he lightly nudged Lance’s shoulder with his palm. Lance dropped the mask to his lap and pointed the blue and white rubber band lanyard bracelet.

“Was this also in your recommended searches?” Lance raised a brow as he twisted his wrist to see the design. Keith nodded vigorously proud of his work.

“Yup, I bought it months ago, but I lost it and then I found it the other day. I remember telling you about the _FunLoom_ and you said that your little sister had one, but she never made you a bracelet so I thought I could make you one. I also made one for myself, but it’s red and black.” Keith dug into his pants pocket the bracelet as he placed it on himself. “I thought we could have friendship bracelets.”

“Aw, man,” Lance playfully whined. “Now, I feel bad. We’re announcing our friendship and I am empty-handed. I promise next time I show up, I’ll get you something great.”

“What you talking about?” Keith guffawed. “Every time you show up it’s like Christmas except instead of singing ‘ _Here Comes Santa Claus_ ’ your jingle is ‘ _Greased Lightning_ ’. If anything I feel bad because you’re giving me stuff almost everyday and I’m not giving you anything back in return, which is why we started the five fun facts of the day, remember?”

“How could I forget?” Lance’s eyes crinkled. “My favorites were the college edition the one where you told me banging your head against a wall makes you lose 150 calories an hour.”

“And that heart attacks are likely to happen on a Monday.” Keith recalled with a gleam.

“Which is understandable,” Lance’s phone buzzed in his pocket. “Oh, sorry,” Lance dug into his front pocket sinking into the couch to get a good grasp on it. It was text from his friend.

**10:08 AM**

**Hunkalicious:** Bossman thinks u died u should hurry back w the truck

**Lance-Does-A-Lot:** :/

“I got to get back to the job.” Lance groaned as he rolled his eyes as he sat up from the couch. He didn’t want to leave Keith just yet, but he also wanted to keep his job.

“Oh,” was all Keith said, but Lance felt the disappointment wave heavy in the air. Lance started walking back to Keith’s entrance carrying his electric face mask. Keith followed him on the way. Lance sat down on the raised carpet as he pulled on his boots. Keith was about to tell him the Five Fun Facts of the day, but then he saw his socks.

“You’re socks are cool. I have socks like those, but mine are the rainbow flag.” Keith admitted to Lance with ease.

“I bought the bi socks as a way to subtly let people know I’m not straight-” Lance had to backtrack as he shifted his vision toward Keith. “Hold on, like you mean the Pride flag?”

“Mhm,” Keith nodded. “I also bought them to let people know I’m not straight. You know before I became a hermit.”

“How is it that that topic never came up before?” Lance returned to tying his shoes as he thought of all the ways he could’ve flirted with Keith. He was wondering if he should start implementing a pickup line each day as a way to say hello. After all, the Five Fun Facts started off as Keith’s way of saying goodbye.

“I guess, I could’ve said that in a random fun fact. Hey, did you know a group of cats is called a clowder and I’m attracted to men?” Keith crossed his arms as he chuckled. If Keith told Lance that randomly one day, Lance would’ve probably combusted with delight.

“Speaking of random facts,” Lance raised from the floor as he unlocked the door stepping outside. “What are the five fun facts of the day?”

“I think you’ll like these,” The two of them settled into their regular positions Keith on this inside of the door and Lance on the out. “Fact one: A lion’s roar can be heard five miles away.”

“And you know I love me some big cats.”

“Knowing you, you probably wouldn’t need five miles to hear a cat Mr. Cat Whisperer,” Keith beamed. “You may know cats feelings, but did you know that cats paws are different from the front and back paws. Five toe beans in the front, but only four in the back. It’s true I checked Black and Red.”

“In that case, I am going to check Blue’s as soon as I get home.”

“Speaking of Blue, did you know that on Mars their sunsets are blue? Thought you might like that Astronomy Major, who also happens to love the color blue.” It was clear to Lance that Keith was proud of his research and Lance couldn’t be happier to see that grin because Keith’s brightness seemed closely linked to him.

“Alright,”Lance realized he might have stared at Keith for too long so he quickly brought up his fingers and began counting. “Let me see if I remember these facts lions are loud,” Lance put up one finger with each fact he recounted. “Cat’s have nine toes and Mar’s sunsets are blue. I think those are all the ones you’ve said so far.”

“I have two more facts for you.” Keith nodded to him covering his bottom lip with his top one nibbling at his own lip as he inched into his right pocket. “They kind of go with each other.” Keith brought out his right hand in a tightly wound fist. Lance could tell he was nervous by the way he started to mumble, but it wasn’t hard for Lance to decipher what he was saying. Keith was his sole focus after all.

“95% of people text things they could never say in person,” Lance wondered what the last fact of the day would be as Keith raised his palm toward the door. Keith twisted his hand and opened his palm  to a reveal a piece of crumbled paper. “Last fun fact,” Lance saw Keith’s cheeks and the bridge of his nose was sprinkling with pink. “Uh, and this piece of paper has my phone number in it.” Keith could barely look at Lance as his hand shook from nerves.

Keith stunned his delivery boy for a couple of seconds as he processed that he was getting Keith’s number. Lance’s mind went on a journey through those couple of seconds as he thought about what this could mean for their relationship. Lance thought about showing Keith the world through his phone. If Keith couldn’t go outside he could bring outside to him. Show him the beach on his phone, watch cherry blossom trees while facetiming, watch the sunset together. It could lead to trips to his house that doesn’t involve a random purchase, maybe a date, maybe he could see his FunCave make a lego statue of the Abominable Snowman together, but none of that could happen if he didn’t know Keith’s phone number. Lance practically snatched the paper out of Keith’s hand as he stared at it in his hands unable to hold back his elation. Lance put the facemask underneath his arm as he grabbed his phone and quickly sent Keith a text which conveyed how he felt inside.

**9:46 AM**

**Lance-Does-A-Lot:** :DDDDDDD

**Lance-Does-A-Lot:**!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Keith didn’t see the text just yet but they could both hear his ringtone play in the background. It was a snippet of the X-Files themes song.

“You text quick.” Keith grabbed the door handle as he looked up to his stairs for a small moment. “My phone is in my room, you’ll probably see it soon,” Lance’s eyes widen with that comment and when Keith saw the shock on Lance’s face his mind went to the gutter as he began to stammer as his face became enveloped in red. “I-I mean, I have like a lot of posters in my room. I was going to send you pictures and you’re always asking how I ended up liking what I bought so now I can tell you how I liked it real-time.” Keith rubbed the back of his neck rummaging through his obsidian locks.

“I can’t wait.” Lance loved everything about today. “I’m really excited to talk to you when I am not in this outfit. I promise you I can do better.”

“I don’t get better than my pjs,” Keith chuckled as he leaned against the door staring at Lance. “And I bet you look great in anything you wear. You have a nice," Keith really thought about what word to use as he viewed Lance's body. "A nice physique.” Lance _really_ didn’t want to leave now. He wanted to stay and show him how nice his ‘physique’ really is, but Lance was getting a call from Alfor. Lance murmured a curse underneath his breath.

“I wish I could talk to you more,” Lance started walking backwards. “But I have to go return the truck,” He started raising his volume. “Your house is lovely by the way!” Lance bumped into the back of his truck and got spooked. He could hear Keith laugh from all the way to the street. Lance pointed to the emblem and back at Keith.  “I meant to do that!” Lance jumped into the car.

“Sure, Jan!” Keith mocked as he waved toward Lance. “Talk to you soon!”

Lance waved his phone toward Keith as he turned on the engine. He didn’t close his car door as he honked toward Keith as he blasted his soundtrack. Lance played track 24 ‘You’re the One that I Want’ Lance started singing the song at the top of his lungs.

“Drive safe!” Keith shouted toward him before he closed his red door with the rose gold lion knocker. Lance wooed to himself as he realized he had Keith’s number in his contacts. Lance knew it was the only thing that was going to be on his mind all day.

 

Fast forward to lunch and it was still the only thing on Lance’s mind. After Lance dropped off the truck with a mild scolding from Alfor about being late, Hunk took Lance and him to their favorite pizza shop that doubles as an ice cream parlor. There wasn’t that many people in the restaurant. Hunk, Lance, a man with a silver and black prosthetic ordering one pizza without cheese and one with, and the cashier behind the counter of the small bistro.

“Hunk, have I told you how I love my job?”

“Only every time you come off your shift,” Hunk was happy for his friend as he sat in the red leather booths. “But in the mornings you hate it plenty I almost forget you care about your job this much.”

“Yeah,” Lance sighed happily, “but you see today is different. I’m going to love my job forever and ever because today after a patient three years I’ve been blessed.”

“Did someone pay off your entire college tuition?” Hunk drank from his root beer float.

“Pssh, I wish,” Lance placed his phone on their table as he spun it around so Hunk could see. “I got something better that money can’t buy,” Lance clicked the photo Keith sent him of his contact photo. It wasn’t an entire photo of his face, but it had his bangs and his doe eyes in it. Keith was staring directly into the camera, but he was all the way at the bottom of the screen. “I made a friend and possibly something more, look how cute he is!”

“He has really pretty eyes what-what  color are they,” Hunk started to zoom in on the screen. “Is that a grey or a purple?” Hunk peered up from the phone. “Are purple eyes even a thing?”

“Who knows,” Lance shrugged as his phone buzzed against the table. Lance grinned swiping the image away so that he can see what Keith texted him. “He’s just a great guy. He really knows who he is. He is that guy who’d stay up ‘til two am to watch a _Chillow_ infomercial and wake up at noon to talk to his international friends about the Mongolian Death Worm and then take a lil’ nap and play with his legos. I mean, I'm guessing he talks to other people on the internet about conspiracies, he might not actually-”

“W-w-w-w-w-wait, hold on,” Hunk put out his hand toward Lance as he spoke in complete seriousness. “Keith has the _Chillow_? The pillow that is cool on both sides no matter what temperature surrounds it? He has that _Chillow_?”

“Yeah, he bought two of them. A product he really loves. When I stepped into his house today, it was freezing. I texted him and asked him why is he practicing living in the arctic and he told me he overheats. Isn’t that adorable? He’s a lil’ computer.”

“It’s so hard to imagine Keith with a _Chillow_. I saw that when I was walking around a superstore, but then you were like ‘no, Hunk don’t buy stuff you don’t need.’ Speaking of, how come when I buy random junk you get upset, but when Keith does it, it’s 'cute' and 'adorable'?”

“Because your random junk is our random junk. We share an apartment together, remember, if you buy useless stuff it becomes useless clutter and then we won’t have space for our animals homes or space to just lie down on and contemplate life,” Lance took a sip of his lemonade. “Maybe we should have just a bit more junk. I don’t like contemplating things.”

“Yeah and Blue does love her scratching posts.”

“Speaking of blue,” Lance liked telling his friends his random fun facts. “Did you know that Mars has blue sunsets?”   

“Yeah,” Hunk nodded laughing at Lance.

 “What? How?” Lance shrieked his questions toward his friend.

“We learned about this in class,” Hunk pointed out to the window. “So, you see how Earth’s sunset is orange that’s cause we have a thick atmosphere. Mars has a low atmosphere so it’s Rayleigh scattering is low so it gives off the image of blue.”

“Right! I totally forgot about that. Now, that I think back to it that was probably the only question I got wrong on the final.” Lance thought aloud.

“Maybe you should bring Keith with you to the library when you go study you can retain all the little details- hold on was that apart of the five fun facts of the day?” Hunk realized.

“Yes, it was, but that’s not important. Also, I can’t take Keith to the library, remember he can’t go outside.” Lance spoke almost unable to believe Hunk forgot.

“Oh, yeah, cause he’s a mafia leader hiding behind closed doors, right?”  Hunk laughed.

“That’s only one theory of why Keith can’t go outside. The other is that he is terrified of chemtrails. Doesn’t want the government getting into his head.” Lance tapped his fingers to the side of his head.

A laugh erupted from the man at the counter waiting for his pizza. The counter was adjacent to the booth so they saw him as he pivoted on his heels.

“I’m sorry,” the man with a scar across the bridge of his nose held his laughter in by putting his hand over his mouth before he waved his hand. “I couldn’t help, but overhear, are you guys talking about Keith Kogane?” Lance’s eyes flicked to the man’s hair first. He noticed the top of his undercut first, he saw the stylish silver tuft that parted the top of his ebony hair. When Lance’s eyes further scanned his facial features: the strong sculpted jaw, the dark grey almost obsidian eyes, the long eyelashes that framed his eyes almost like winged eyeliner, and those thick carefully constructed eyebrows with edges as sharp as knives, Lance couldn’t believe who he was seeing. It was the living legend Takashi Shirogane a.k.a Shiro.

Lance was a freshman when Shiro was a graduating senior, but he still made a lasting impression on Lance. Shiro was able to do it all. He always had the highest marks in his classes, he was the star co-captain of the football team, and he was best friends with his co-captain. Lance idolized that friendship to extremes. The platonic King and Queen of the Garrison Shiro and Allura. Their appearances were never at a fault, during games they didn’t sweat they merely shimmered. As beautiful as they were on the outside didn’t compare to how they were on the inside. They looked like actual higher beings, but their personalities and kindness were beyond a level of godliness. Unlike other upperclassmen they helped guide the underclassmen to reach prosperity at the prestigious and strict high school.

Lance couldn’t believe his high school hero was talking to him, but he was even more stunned to see his arm, or his new arm. Lance blinked back to reality as his eyes settled on the dazzling silver prosthetic. Lance recognized he was staring at it and feared he was being rude as he shook his head toward Shiro.

“I’m sorry,” Lance began. “You’re Shiro, right?” Shiro only nodded his head with a smile in response and he was about to ask how’d you know my name, but Lance sensed that was the next question and beat him to the punch. “I went to the Garrison when you were a senior. I’m Lance.” Hunk gasped when he recognized him.

“Oh my gosh, you’re Takashi Shirogane, I’m Hunk.” Hunk gestured for Shiro to sit next to him as he scooted down toward the window from his seat.  “A man of your caliber shouldn’t have to stand.” Shiro smiled humbly as he took a seat beside him protesting the praise.

“I’m not sure if that’s necessarily true," Shiro was modest toward Hunk, "but thank you for the compliment.”

“No, dude,” Lance combatted. “I exaggerate a lot, but this is not one of those times. You’re freaking epic, you did more in your life in high school then what I will ever be able to do in my entire life.”

“I’m sure that’s not right.” Shiro laughed.

“Oh, no,” Hunk commented. “It is right. Lance is the master of doing nothing all day.”

“Hey!” Lance remarked with a tint of laughter.  “I do things.”

“What do you do besides drool over the guy who has an obsession with infomercials?” Hunk jestered.

“I-” Lance raised his hand pointing toward Hunk ready to give a response, but after he realized he didn’t have one he wagged his finger in the air. “Okay, you got me there.”

“This guy wouldn’t happen to be Keith Kogane?” Shiro asked Lance.

“Yeah,” Lance nodded making it obvious he was impressed with Shiro’s deduction skills. “How’d you know?”

“Well, I overheard you mention Keith, conspiracies, and the inability to go outside and I think the possibility of there being another Keith like that around here would be pretty low,” Shiro’s eyes dipped down to Lance’s outfit staring at his brown button down shirt for a moment. “Also Keith was telling me about a UPS driver he liked,” Lance flushed hearing the words of confirmation that his crush was requited. “And from what I’ve also overheard, it seems that feeling is mutual.”

“Aye, buddy,” Hunk cheered for Lance. “You have a chance!”  Lance darted his eyes toward his friend as his instincts called to him. He was under the impression he needed to seem more formal in front of Shiro because he knew Keith which begged the question.

“How do you know Keith?” Lance blurted out the thought.

“He’s my brother.” Shiro spoke with ease. “And I know you’re thinking it so before you ask, ‘but you two don’t look alike’ it’s because he is my adopted brother.”

“That makes so much sense,” Hunk had an epiphany. “You two were the best at the Garrison. Did you give Keith a cheat code to surviving or something?”

“If I had a guide of surviving the Garrison I would’ve handed a copy to every student there. Those four years were more complicated than college and that was rough too.” Shiro shuddered thinking about his Garrison experience.

“Speaking of Keith,” Hunk was seeking an answer to a question most of his peers had. “Why did Keith dropout in the middle of junior year?”

“That kind of ties into your theories, Lance.” Shiro admitted.

“Wait,” Lance eyes lit up from excitement. “So, Keith _is_ a mafia leader?!” Shiro cackled instantly from the suggestion.

“He wishes.” Shiro let out a breath as he calmed down. “No, the reason Keith dropped out and can’t go outside isn’t because of government secrets it’s because we got into a car accident.” Shiro rubbed the metal base of his arm. “Some things were lost in those few seconds, but I think the biggest loss was Keith's trust in his surroundings.” Shiro spaced out as he stared in the middle of the table, but he shook his head as he regained focus.

“Alright, so in that case,” Hunk had further questions. “If you were in a car accident why wasn’t he scared of cars how did that prevent him from going outside?”

“Hunk!” Lance kicked Hunk underneath the table resulting in his friend grimacing.

“No, it’s fine,” Shiro chuckled. “Maybe, he would be if he had been in a car when it happened. We were running along the sidewalk minding our business when an expensive car swerved into us. Keith knows more about what happened after the car hit us because, unlike me, he was still conscious. He never goes into much detail about it, he’s still trying to get over it, but on the brightside I figured out what the saying ‘it costs an arm and a leg’ meant,” Shiro flashed a smile. “When we got a settlement from the state and the driver of the car I bought Keith his own house,” Shiro sighed. “I just never realized once he moved in he’d never step out again.”

“Do you two live together?” Lance wanted to ease up the conversation, it felt too heavy for him; Lance much prefered theory three that Keith just liked his house a lot rather than the truth.

“I used to, for the first year or two, some of my stuff is still there like my sneakers. I left Keith my cat-”

“Black?”

“Yeah!” Shiro got excited at the mention of his pet's name. “Did Keith tell you about her?”

“No, he let me in and she watched me from a distance. Red cuddled up all over me too.” Lance was pleased with the memory. It was always an honor when a cat came to you and wanted to be pet. Lance felt as if he was chosen and loved the sweet _sweet_ validation.

“He let you in the house and let Red near you?!” Shiro was flabbergasted. “Lance,” Shiro’s tone became more serious. “You might not realize how big of a deal that is, that’s practically a proposal for Keith,” Shiro’s eyes twinkled. “Wow, this is great, my little brother is making friends, has he invited you to his FunCave, yet?” Hunk brought his eyebrows together wondering what that is.

“No,” Lance said slowly as he wondered why it would cause that much excitement for Shiro. “Why? What would that mean if he did?”

“It means he really trusts you,” Shiro spoke with a nostalgia heavy in his voice. “ His basement is a mini version of Toys R Us. I have been to his FunCave like five times and it’s been four years. He’s let Allura down there more than me.”

“Alfor’s daughter?” Hunk questioned.

“You know her dad?” Shiro turned to his left meeting him with questioning eyes.

“Yeah, he’s our boss.” Hunk returned, but as he did Lance’s eyes widened as he gasped loudly bringing his palms to his temples.

“Oh my stars! How have I not pieced together that Alfor’s Allura is the same as Garrison Goddess Allura?!” Lance exclaimed as he stared at Hunk who was also now putting two and two together.

“What?” Shiro chuckled as he leaned back into his chair pulling his phone. “I am texting Allura that,” Shiro’s teeth sparkled as he typed with his left hand. “She is going to love that.”

“Aw, that’s awesome!” Hunk gently punched Shiro’s shoulder as he threw his arm around the booth seat. “You two are still besties.”

“Yeah, we moved in together,” Shiro stared wide-eyed in the middle of the dining table as he sucked his teeth holding back laughter. “You learn a lot about your best friend when you move in with them. We argue so much people think we're a straight couple.” Shiro’s focus returned to Lance making direct eye contact as he whispered and emphasized. 

“I know the struggle of living with your best friend,” Lance started as he turned to Hunk.  “I’m not dating Hunk, either, although he’d be a catch,” Hunk blushed from the kind comment as Lance winked at him. “He’s been my roommate for what, like, five years?”

“Try six years,” Hunk corrected. “Four years at the Garrison. One year as freshies at the university and this year we moved into our own apartment.”

“Right,” Lance bobbed his head up and down. “It feels like a lifetime,” Lance faced Shiro. “He is the best roommate ever, when he gets stressed he bakes and the more nervous he is the harder it is whatever he is making. His fuel for croquembouche may have been the worry of failing finals, but I only tasted fluffy clouds of perfection.”

“That sounds impressive,” Shiro tried to repeat the word. “I don’t even know what- croak-um-boot - is, but sounds delicious.”

“Trust me, it was, no offense Hunk, I love you and I love your happiness, but I’m also never upset when you get slightly worried.” Lance joked, but when Hunk gets anxious, Lance is the first person to calm him down. Lance loved his friends and if he could he would give them the world.

“Thanks Lance,” Hunk deadpanned with a grin. “For those words of reassurance.”

“You know that’s what I’m here for buddy.” Lance placed his hand over his chest with a smirk. Hunk playfully rolled his eyes at his friend.

Shiro chuckled at the two friends as a waiter came by delivering the two pizzas Shiro ordered. He thanked them while he handed them the money. He started making his goodbyes as he exited the seat. “I should get going, I promised Keith that I’d bring him Allura’s old bedazzler.”

“I love bedazzling!” Lance had vivid memories of making everything shine with his sisters when they were younger. “What is he making?”

“He knitted Red and Black a sweater, but he said he thought they wanted more shine.”

“He knits?” Lance wondered why this never came up between them. “I also knit!”

“No you don’t,” Hunk scoffed. “I knit and then you take credit for it.”

“I know someone who knits.” Lance told Shiro as he let out a breath of laughter carrying the boxes of warm pizza.

“Congratulations, Lance,” Shiro happily looked at both Lance and Hunk . “It was nice getting to talk to you both, I hope I’ll be hearing a lot from you guys in the future.” Shiro wanted Keith to have friends and Lance and Hunk made good company.

“I hope I get to see the FunCave.” In one conversation Lance gained a challenge. He really wanted Keith to trust him enough to show him the inner workings of his mind.

“Same, I really want to see the Toys R Us explosion.” Hunk imagined everything in the toy store was in Keith’s basement, but the difference is that it’s just miniature and they would be giants walking through the tiny Toys R Us.

“It’s pretty fun, he has two different toy chests. One for abstract toys he bought because he saw them on tv like the _Fushigi Gravity Ball_ and another for toys he had as a kid.”

“Like a teddy bear?” Lance was only half-joking because he couldn’t imagine the Keith he knew from the Garrison with a stuffed bear. However, this is also the same Keith who grew out his hair because Lance mentioned his sister was thinking about buying the _Air Curler_ , if someone would be self-sacrificing enough to grow out an even longer mullet for another person to give them a trustworthy review then of course they would be kind enough to take care of a teddy bear.

“He named them Bear-Bear.” Shiro’s phone kept buzzing in his pocket and he stared at it as an audible buzz was heard. “That’s either Keith telling me to hurry up or Allura loving her new contact name,” Shiro held the pizza in one hand as he waved to the duo. “See you guys, around.”

“Wait, hold on!” Lance grabbed his phone from the table as he turned around in his seat putting his knees on the cushion and took a selfie with Hunk and Shiro in the background. “I’m gonna send this to Keith.” Shiro’s smile emulated the cheshire cat as crinkles made it near his eyes as he stepped closer to the camera. Hunk’s open grin was exuberant and put all of them to shame as he managed to have twinkles in his eyes as the photo was taken. Lance was barely in the photo managing to maintain a smile with his eyes even though half of his face had not made it in the picture.

“Alright, now I really gotta go. Bye guys.” As quickly as Shiro graced them with his presence was as swiftly as he left them.

Lance shifted quickly into his seat as he sent Keith the image. They already started talking to each other while Hunk drove them to the pizza parlor.

**1:12PM**

**Keef** : _[gif of a shaking screen with a banana with googley eyes with the caption underneath it reading *SCREAMING*]_

**Keef** : it was a really weird dream and this is only way I can describe it

**1:32PM**

**Lance-Does-A-Lot** : _[selfie of Lance and friends]_

**Lance-Does-A-Lot** : Small world huh (you never told me you were related to SHiro!!)

**Keef** : ye he’s ma Shi-bro

**Keef:** badum tiss

Lance put his phone down with the screen on the table. Although Lance knew his face lacked an expression Hunk laughed.

“What pun were you subjected to?”

“How’d you know I heard a pun?” Lance was always amazed at how well his friends knew him.

“You had the neutral face of displeasure.” Hunk put his hand underneath his chin as he replicated the face and Lance understood.

“The only reason I hate puns is because Leo,” Lance’s eldest brother, “makes them nonstop.”

Hunk was about to defend Leo and his puns, but as he was, a plate of pineapple and ham pizza placed in front of them ceasing all form of conversation. When Hunk and Lance were friends in middle school preparing for standardized tests they made up an example to understand analogies which was pacifiers are to babies as food is to teenagers and they passed analogies with ease.

Lance was occupied scarfing down slices of the Hawaiian pizza until his phone buzzed. He flipped it over and saw a text.

**1:45PM**

**Keef** : im sorry

Lance wiped the grease off of his hands on the napkins the waiter handed him when they gave him the pizza.

**Lance-Does-A-Lot** : Why?

**Keef** : i punned too early in the game

Lance couldn’t help but laugh as he grabbed his phone giving Keith his undivided attention.

**Lance-Does-A-Lot** : Yeah

“Hunk, do you think it’s risky to tell someone whose number you just got, that they’re cute?”

“Mhmm.” Hunk murmured as he ate the sweet and salty combo. “Probably.” He murmured.

**Lance-Does-A-Lot** : But it’s cute when you do it ;)

“Well, I just did it.” Lance proceeded to wait for Keith’s text back since he texted him back quickly. Hunk gave Lance a reassuring thumbs up as he closed his eyes enjoying the food. Lance waited for a response a few more seconds before he started to chuckle for no reason.

“Why are you laughing?” Hunk muttered why he was patting the sides of his mouth of grease.

“I am laughing out of concern.”  Lance showed Hunk his screen with the dreaded _Read 1:47 PM_ tagged underneath his blue message.  Hunk gave Lance his condolences in the form of ordering him an ice cream cone with oreo cookie crumbles.

After Lance and Hunk split the bill and headed to their car Hunk told him to drive. Hunk didn’t want Lance moping over his phone. Lance drove with ease in his mom’s minivan which she passed down to him after he got his license. Lance held his ice cream in his right hand as he pulled out of their spot steering with his left. Hunk held onto Lance’s phone so that he wouldn’t text and drive in case Keith responded back.

“He is probably busy.” Hunk took a bite of his ice cream sandwich. “Remember Shiro said he was on his way to his house.”

“It would’ve taken him much longer to get there.” Lance was about to groan, but he replaced his complaining with licking his ice cream cone crunching on the crumble.

“He could be getting mentally prepared to bedazzle stuff.”

“Okay,” Lance murmured as he licked more of his ice cream. “Valid.”

“He’ll probably text you back later on at night,” Hunk turned on the radio trying to find a station where a song was actually playing. “If not just take a page out of his book.”

“Which would be?”

“Saying you're sorry for flirting too early in the game.”

“When did you read my texts?” Lance pulled onto the highway and he wanted to steal a glance at Hunk, but decided to keep both eyes on the road. “How’d you figure out my password pin?”

“I didn’t figure it out,” Hunk shrugged as he finally found a station he liked. _Take On Me_ played softly in the background. “ You told me your password was me when you got wasted at a party once you said it was your best friend and it’s four digits.”

“So, you just assumed you were my best friend?” Lance laughed as he thought of the day he made his code 4(gHi)8(tUv)6(mNo)5(jKl).

“No,” Hunk humbly admitted. “At first I put Lisa and Nina.”

“I’m not friends with my sisters.” Lance guffawed. “They drag me on a constant basis.”

“That’s how siblings show their love for each other.”

“Their love hurts my feelings.” Lance laughed.

“Exactly, like I said sibling love.”  Hunk was happy to see his friend was distracted and not thinking about his phone. The two of them began singing along to the radio station singing songs like _Living on a Prayer_ and _Don’t Stop Believing_ until they reached their apartment.

The minute they stationed in their apartment’s parking area and Hunk and Lance were outside of the car, Lance snatched his phone from Hunk with the mask he got from Keith in hand. Lance proceeded to run up their apartment stairs so he could head up to the highest floor where they resided. The highest floor was the cheapest floor because it involved walking up seven flights of stairs.

Lance barely made it to the top, his legs caving in by the time he was in front of his door, he instantly regretted running all the way to the top. Lance put the mask behind his head strapping the velcro over his forehead and putting the remote that controlled the lights in his pocket. Lance checked his phone as he curled up in ball waiting for Hunk to open the door for him and possibly carry him into their house.

 Lance checked his phone to see if Keith texted him back and he had no notifications that impressed him. Lance groaned on the floor as he texted his other best friend. They had a habit of texting each other in all caps as best friends do.

**3:42 AM**

**Princess Pidge** : LANCE YOU NEED TO WATCH THIS TV SHOW CALLED BIG BROTHER IT’S MY SUMMER OBSESSION!!!!

**2:30 PM**

**Lance-Does-A-Lot** : PIDGE HELP ME MOURN

**Princess Pidge** : DID HUNK BEAT YOU AT MARIO KART AGAIN?

**Lance-Does-A-Lot** :THATS CUTE! HE COULD NEVER

**Lance-Does-A-Lot** : BUT NO SRSLY I SENT A RISKY TEXT TO KEITH AND I THINK I BLEW IT

**Princess Pidge** : AWWW THAT SUCKS

**Princess Pidge** : AT LEAST YOU BLEW IT NOW B4 YOU COULD BLOW IT WHEN YOU FELL IN LOVE

**Lance-Does-A-Lot** : WOW THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR THE BOOST OF CONFIDENCE

**Princess Pidge** : NO PROBLEM

**Princess Pidge** : YOU KNOW WHAT WOULD MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER?

**Lance-Does-A-Lot** : WHAT?

**Princess Pidge** : WATCHING MY SUMMER OBSESSION

**Lance-Does-A-Lot** : .-.

Hunk came up the stairs calmly as he opened the door to his level which revealed a room that had four other doors connecting to it. Hunk sighed when he saw his friend in a fetal position with his phone in the center. He shuddered when he saw the mask again. Lance pranked Hunk when showcasing  the mask Keith gave him the same way Keith pranked Lance. Lance saw it as paying it forward. As soon as he prank paid off he took the mask off.

Hunk opened the door managing not to bump into Lance. Hunk’s dog, Yellow, was already in front of the door and began licking at Lance’s face which caused him to sit up on his knees as he petted the dog. A hopping dog can brighten anyone’s day Lance decided as he rushed inside the house with Yellow.

“Who wants a cookie?” Lance cooed toward Yellow. “You do? Alright, let’s go get it boy!” Lance nuzzled the top of Yellow’s head as he went into Hunk and his kitchen going into the dog’s cookie jar. It had a big label of duct tape and sharpie ink saying FOR DOGS right next to another glass jar that had a similar label saying FOR HUMANS. Lance and Hunk had one too many accidents for a midnight snack and can accurately describe what a bacon biscuit tastes like which inspired the labels.

Lance turned around from the counter as he saw Yellow.

“Sit,” Lance commanded and Yellow obeyed instantly wagging his tail panting his tongue. “Now, roll over.” Hunk watched as he saw how well Yellow was behaving.

“Play dead, Yellow.” Hunk called out from the side. Yellow flopped onto his side holding his tongue out and Lance laughed as he turned to Hunk.

“When did you teach him that?!”

“It’s been maybe about three days.”

“What a good boy,” Lance’s voice returned to how he would talk to a baby. At the sound of 'good boy' Yellow was back on his feet sitting as Lance tossed the dog treat in the air. Yellow grabbed the biscuit in mid-air as he ran off to the cookie corner in the kitchen where he ate his food in peace.

Hunk headed to his bedroom to change into more comfortable clothes like his onesie of Pikachu rather than his bland brown uniform while Lance grabbed a plastic pink name brand bag full of small cat treats as he walked into his room to reveal the fluffiest cat Lance ever laid eyes on; Blue. She was curled on up his bed which was pushed up against the window so he could watch the stars at night.  Blue stretched her legs out as soon as she saw Lance, stood on top of his bed, and jumped off purring right next to his feet.

“Don’t think I forgot about you beautiful,” Lance knelt as he put down a few treats for Blue to snack on. When she dipped her head to munch on the soft treats Lance petted the back of her fur. Lance loved her fluffiness she looked like a soft pillow. In fact, he sometimes confused her with his pillow and rested his head on her a couple of times to result in a loud _yrow_ and a few seconds of betrayal. Lance always smoothed it over by giving her snacks and attention. Lance put the bag of snacks by his small bedside table which had a few trinkets on it. A lamp, an alarm clock, and now a creepy electronic face mask.  Lance put his phone down there for a moment and charged it as he went to his closet and grabbed his cat onesie. Lance didn’t know why it felt right to change into it, but he knew he had too.

When Lance stepped outside of his room and walked past their kitchen into the living room he understood why he was wearing his cat pajamas. He resonated with Hunk because their bond was that great. They matched frequencies with one another because that’s how deep their friendship was.

Lance smiled as he took a seat by Hunk.

“Pidge said we should watch her summer obsession.” When Lance spoke Blue jumped on the couch snuggling up beside Lance and Yellow jumped on the opposite side cuddling with Hunk.

“You came at the right time! I just started episode one. There’s like five of them out so far and the first two are two hours long the others are an hour so this binge should be about seven hours.” Hunk noticed Lance didn’t have his phone on him and saw that as a good sign he wasn’t obsessing over Keith.

“If we buzz through the commercials we’re looking at roughly six hours instead.”

“Smart, man,” Hunk handed Lance the control. “You’re better at knowing when to zoom through and when to press play better than me.”

“I’m glad you’ve noticed my talents.” Lance stated with pride as he started to watch Big Brother with his best friend.

Lance and Hunk were hooked after the first thirty minutes when the game was explained. The game put sixteen strangers in a house completely closed off from the outside world. Lance was appalled when they weren’t even allowed a phone in the house the only people they could talk to were the other houseguests. They also had to compete throughout the summer with various trials in attempts to get power or luxury items. Each week a houseguest would get evicted by a vote by the other houseguests and the last one sitting in the house at the end of the summer would win half a million dollars. The game caused instant drama as friends turned into foes within a matter of minutes. It was the drama Lance and Hunk would not want to be apart of, but loved watching ensue.

 

Lance didn’t notice the time blow by from watching Big Brother. Lance thought it would be smart to take a shower because he felt dirty just from watching how the contestants schemed and plotted against each other backstabbing them ruthlessly. Lance headed to his room, grabbed his clothes, and his new mask. Lance didn’t think about checking his phone because he was thinking about where he put his toning gel in the bathroom. He would’ve been able to respond quicker to his messages had he looked at it.

 

**8:57 PM**

**Keef** : :)

**Keef** : glad you like my puns

 

**9:23 PM**

**Keef** : hold on wait

**Keef** : was that you calling me cute?

 

**9:46 PM**

**Keef** : yeah i asked shiro just in case and he said you were flirting with me

**Keef** : thank you

**Keef** : i don't know how to flirt back but if i did you should know that's what i’d be doing right now

 

**9:53PM**

**Keef** : so shiro told me i probably shouldn’t text you so much so im going to apologize and ill just text you back when you text me back

 

Lance didn’t read Keith’s string of comments as he tossed himself into bed after making sure Blue was nowhere near it to get squashed. He tried the rejuvenating mask and he actually liked the results despite the numerous comments saying otherwise online.

 

**10:06 PM**

**Lance-Does-A-Lot** : I just used the electric mask and big thumbs up from me

**Lance-Does-A-Lot** : Omg i just read what you typed and i talk a lot but you should know for the first time in a long time i am legitimately speechless

**Keef** : is that bad?

**Lance-Does-A-Lot** : NO IN THIS CASE IT IS GOOD! I meant i was speechless as in like i don’t know where to go next like i rarely get this far when i talk to someone i really like

**Lance-Does-A-Lot** : Maybe speechless was the wrong word I’m more like breathless because you actually want to flirt back with me (btw you did a good job my cheeks are heated rn)

**Keef** : i know where to go next

**Lance-Does-A-Lot** : Where’s that? :D

**Keef** : on a date. at my home (bc i can’t go anywhere else). in ma FunCave™

Lance could not find the words to convey that his soul was ascending to a plane beyond him via text messages. Lance wanted to send him the gif of the woman wearing a bow tie crying shaking her head saying I am so used to giving now I get to recieve (who incidentally was on the show Big Brother), but he decided against it as that may have done too much.

He ran to Hunk’s room next door and screamed toward him showing him the messages Keith sent as he jumped around like a hyper kid during a sugar rush. Hunk was half-asleep in his bed and not giving him the proper response Lance thought his date required so he went to Hunk’s dog who matched Lance’s excitement. After, Lance got the reaction he desired he ran back to his room and screamed into his pillow -which was a real pillow- to release his extra emotions.

Lance couldn’t contain his happiness, he thought he had to earn Keith’s trust, but turns out he already had.

**Lance-Does-A-Lot** : When

Keith texted in a rapid succession.

**Keef** : tomorrow? and the time is whenever you want we can have a sleepover if you want too

**Keef** : i have a lot of games i need at least two people for

**Keef** : i have regular video games too not just board games and stuff

**Keef** : or we can make dinner together and just hang out?

**Keef** : idk it’s up to you i’ve never been on a date idk what i am doing

**Lance-Does-A-Lot** : Can I say yes to doing all the above? :D I would love to hang out and go on a date and make dinner and play video and board games and have fun with you

**Lance-Does-A-Lot** : Like I’m not sure you understand I am packing my bag right now as we speak i am so excited to see all the random stuff you’ve bought in the past and get to see you and your cats more

**Keef** : random question

**Keef** : would sharing a bed be a problem for you? cause i have a spare bedroom if it is

**Lance-Does-A-Lot** : SHARING A BED WOULD NOT BE A PROBLEM IN THE SLIGHTEST NOT EVEN A LITTLE BIT

**Lance-Does-A-Lot** : That came on so strong i am so sorry for that, that was my default state, but yeah sharing a bed is not a problem

**Keef** : cool :) i’m gonna start to clean stuff up (i still haven’t picked up my broken mirror shards)

**Lance-Does-A-Lot** : I can help you clean up stuff i’m fine with being domestic B)

**Keef** : it’s okay i’ll feel bad i shoulda done it awhile ago so im gonna get started on that im probs going to head to sleep afterward cause there’s a lot i gotta do so if i don't get back to you

**Keef** : sweet dreams delivery boy

Never had Lance held the words delivery boy as a term of endearment, but now that he could envision Keith saying them there was no other feeling besides bliss that he could have. Lance couldn’t have been happier to be a delivery boy all those summer nights for one Mr. Kogane.

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this will be a series of random one shots involving their relationship and it'll be cute and fluffy most likely always also I'd like to add they couldn't go in the FunCave bc Keith taped two knives on his roombas and the two of them preferred not getting stabbed


End file.
